Photo credit: Jay Caspian King
In 2008, basketball fans in Seattle experienced the intense pain of losing a beloved team. That pain intensified last year, when the franchise, now called the Oklahoma Thunder, advanced all the way to the NBA Finals.
Now, it looks like the pain of basketball fans in another city might be the gain of the fans in Seattle who just want their SuperSonics back.
Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski just tweeted that a deal that would move the ailing Sacramento Kings to Seattle is just about finalized:
The Maloofs are finalizing an agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to the Hansen-Ballmer led Seattle group, sources tell Yahoo! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 9, 2013
The deal will sell the Kings for approximately $500 million, with the Seattle group seeking relocation to Key Arena for the 2013-’14 season.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 9, 2013
The Seattle group’s plans, with support of the NBA, is to play two seasons in Key Arena before moving into a new Seattle arena, sources say.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 9, 2013
No agreement signed, but one source describes deal as “1st and goal at 1.” Maloofs history of changing course late still makes many uneasy.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 9, 2013
It’s unclear at this time whether the Kings would adopt the old Seattle SuperSonics identity following a move, or whether they would keep their current name (or even adopt an entirely new name). One has to think that they would be crazy not to jump onto the green and yellow bandwagon.
It’s also unclear how Seattle fans will react to this news (beyond the initial joy of getting a team). Many fans of the Sonics were outraged at how their team was “stolen” from them and now they are essentially doing the same to another market. Will their morals allow them to cheer for such a team?
Also, this move will mark the death of one of the last remaining purple NBA teams. Can someone get those purple jerseys on the endangered species list?
They are going to come to Columbus.
http://www.nbatocolumbus.com
http://www.facebook.com/nbatocolumbus
Way to troll every single Seattle article about the Sonics. Let Seattle have a moment.
Columbus….? Forget that, Seattle deserves this after everything that’s happened.
They should rename the team the Dreamliners. The team can come out of the tunnel into huge clouds of smoke, and then the arena can experience random power outages and heating oil leaks.
I’m very excited about the return of my beloved Supersonics. I’ve felt the the constant pain that I know Sacramento fans will endure at the loss of their team. However it is NOT the same situation. In 2007 Clay Bennett and his group promised to keep the team here in Seattle, but lied and internal E-mails proved it. Please watch Sonicsgate on YouTube.
Hahaha Columbus just because you have a large population doesn’t mean everyone in your city likes basketball just look at your count, its hasn’t even received 8,000 people who want an NBA team in your city .
I’m a supersonics fan for long time, I don’t Live In Seattle , I used To live in Washington state and North From Seattle. Now I live In NC , I want see Seattle have Team again. Go sonics .
There more 8,000 Fans want Team they don’t live In Seattle , they live All over The USA.